SANTA CRUZ — A 23-year-old man charged with killing a fellow Cabrillo College student inside his studio apartment in Capitola will face a trial.

At a preliminary hearing Monday, a Capitola police officer testified to finding Marcos Chavez inside the Virgil Lane residence on Dec 11, noticeably upset and with blood on his shirt. Elsewhere in the apartment, 36-year-old Ronald Aaron Carpenter was dead, his throat slit. He”d also been bludgeoned with a clothes iron, which lay broken on the apartment floor.

Chavez was grabbing his hair and was agitated, officer Kraig Evans testified.

Another officer, detective Marquis Booth, testified that a search of Chavez” cellphone turned up a text message exchange between him and his landlord. In the exchange, the landlord told Chavez his rent check had bounced. Chavez said he was out of town and would take care of it in a few days.

After hearing testimony Monday afternoon, Judge Paul Marigonda ordered Chavez to be held on the murder charge and on “special circumstances” of robbery. He also was held on two special allegations of use of a deadly weapon, referring to the clothes iron and the knife prosecutors say was used to slit Carpenter”s throat.